English

Small-scale Dynamo in Cool Stars: I. Changes in stratification and near-surface convection for main-sequence spectral types

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2023-07-21 v2

Abstract

Some of the small-scale solar magnetic flux can be attributed to a small-scale dynamo (SSD) operating in the near-surface convection. The SSD fields have consequences for solar granular convection, basal flux, as well as chromospheric heating. A similar SSD mechanism is expected to be active in the near-surface convection of other cool main-sequence stars, but this has never been investigated. We aim to investigate changes in stratification and convection due to inclusion of SSD fields for F3V, G2V, K0V and M0V spectral types in the near-surface convection. 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models of the four stellar boxes, covering the subsurface convection zone up to the lower photosphere in a small cartesian box, are studied using the \textit{MURaM} radiative-MHD simulation code. The SSD runs are compared against reference hydrodynamic runs. An SSD is found to efficiently produce magnetic field with energies ranging between 5\% to 80\% of the plasma kinetic energy at different depths. This ratio tends to be larger for larger TeffT_{\mathrm{eff}}. The relative change in density and gas pressure stratification for the deeper convective layers due to SSD magnetic fields is negligible, except for the F-star. For the F-star, there is a substantial reduction in convective velocities due to Lorentz force feedback from magnetic fields, which, in turn, reduces the turbulent pressure. SSD in near-surface convection for cool main-sequence stars introduces small but significant changes in thermodynamic stratification (especially for the F-star) due to reduction in convective velocities.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2206.00064,
  title  = {Small-scale Dynamo in Cool Stars: I. Changes in stratification and near-surface convection for main-sequence spectral types},
  author = {Tanayveer S. Bhatia and Robert H. Cameron and Sami K. Solanki and Hardi Peter and Damien Przybylski and Veronika Witzke and Alexander Shapiro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.00064},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Update (20.07.2023): an errata (appendix D) has been included to correct a small error in the derivation of turbulent pressure in appendix B. In addition, the text has been updated with the published version. 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&A